Jasmin Ouschan
Jasmin Ouschan, entering the 2012 WPBA Tour Championships at the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, Oregon on the weekend of November 8-11, was seeded at # 8. Her opponent in the finals, Karen Corr came in at #7. Together, in early rounds, and in the single-elimination semifinals, they had downed the # 1 and # 2 seeds in the tournament, Allison Fisher and Ga Young Kim, twice. Ouschan prevailed in the finals over Corr to claim the tour championship title that had drawn 48 entrants to the Chinook Winds Casino Resort.
In early double elimination rounds, Ouschan had defeated Vicki Paski 9-1, Jana Montour 9-3, and in their first of two meetings, downed Fisher 9-6. This put her in the last double elimination match against Jennifer Baretta, who'd survived an opening round, double hill match against Joanne Ashton and gone on to defeat Brittany Bryant 9-4, and Kim White-Newsome 9-2.
Corr, in the meantime, defeated Jessica Barnes 9-2, Xiaoting Pan 9-7 and in their first of two, Ga Young Kim 9-7. This set her up to face Kelly Fisher, who'd advanced past Melissa Little 9-3, Vivian Villarreal 9-2, and Nicole Keeney 9-3.
Ouschan sent Baretta to the loss side 9-1, advancing to the semifinals where she'd meet up again with Allison Fisher. Corr, in the meantime, survived a double hill battle against Kelly Fisher, also advancing to the semifinals and a second meeting against Ga Young Kim.
On the loss side, Ga Young Kim began her trip back to those semifinals with a 9-4 win over Line Kjorsvik, followed it with a 9-1 victory over Monica Webb and downed Barretta 9-5, for her second chance against Corr. Fisher (Allison) survived a double hill battle against Mary Rakin, and at 8 o'clock on Saturday night, squared off against a familiar face, Jeannette Lee. Two hours later, after eliminating Lee 9-6, she faced another familiar face in fellow Fisher, Kelly. She shut Kelly out for her second shot at Ouschan.
On Sunday afternoon, just after 1 o'clock (PST), Ouschan took her second set against Fisher (Allison) 7-3. Just after 3 p.m., Corr took her second set against Ga Young Kim 7-5, and the race-to-7 finals was on.
Ouschan chalked up four racks, including a first and fourth game break-and-run, before Corr got on the board. When Ouschan rattled a 5-ball in a hole in game five, Corr jumped on it, and ran the table. With an open look at the 1-ball on Corr's subsequent dry break, Ouschan re-established her four-game lead at 5-1. Corr would win two more, to pull within three at 6-3, but Ouschan was on the hill, and sunk the 9-ball, top corner, breaking the 10th rack to claim the event title.
At the event, Jana Montour was named as the WPBA's Rookie of the Year. Teruko Cuccelelli, who improved her ranking by 17 slots in the past year, was named as the association's Most Improved Player.
WPBA President Tamre Rogers expressed appreciation for all of the association's fans, venues, and sponsors, including the APA, Diamond Tables, Delta-13 Racks, Simonis and Aramith. While negotiations are ongoing for venue locations to host the WPBA's Regional Tour Championships, expected to be held in January of 2013, the site for the WPBA Masters is already set. That tournament will be held from February 6-10 at the Soaring Eagle Resort and Casino in Mount Pleasant, MI.
